0 0 OSBORN MALEDON, P.A. North Central Avenue, st Floor Phoenix, Arizona 0- Telephone: (0 0-000 David B. Rosenbaum (00 drosenbaum@omlaw.com Thomas L. Hudson (0 thudson@omlaw.com Sara S. Greene (00 sgreene@omlaw.com STEPTOE & JOHNSON LLP Collier Center 0 East Washington Street, Suite 00 Phoenix, Arizona 00- Telephone: (0-00 Facsimile: (0 - David J. Bodney (000 dbodney@steptoe.com Karen J. Hartman-Tellez (0 khartman@steptoe.com Chris Moeser (00 cmoeser@steptoe.com Attorneys for The Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., et al. Maria M. Gonzalez, et al., vs. State of Arizona, et al., UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT Plaintiffs, Defendants. DISTRICT OF ARIZONA No. CV0-0-PHX-ROS (Lead CV0-0-PHX-ROS (Cons CV0-0-PHX-ROS (Cons ITCA PLAINTIFFS RESPONSE IN OPPOSITION TO ADDITIONAL BRIEFING BY THE STATE OF ARIZONA AND ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE Pursuant to this Court s September, 00 Order, plaintiffs the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., et al. hereby respond in opposition to the Additional Briefing by the State of Arizona and Arizona Secretary of State ( State Br..
0 0 Preliminary Statement Contrary to the suggestion of defendants the State of Arizona and Secretary of State Jan Brewer (collectively, the State, whether the proof of citizenship requirement of the Arizona Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act (the Act or Proposition 00 constitutes a poll tax has nothing to do with whether the State may require evidence that people who register to vote are actually U.S. citizens. [State Br. at ] Rather, the issue is whether the State may require citizens to obtain documentary proof of citizenship at their own expense. On this issue, the law is clear -- making the payment of [a] fee an electoral standard is patently unconstitutional. Harper v. Virginia State Bd. of Elections, U.S., (. Faced with this clear law -- and the undisputed fact that Proposition 00 s proof of citizenship requirements impose a financial burden on those who lack satisfactory evidence of citizenship -- the State attempts to defend the Act by relying on three false premises, i.e., that: ( the costs of obtaining satisfactory evidence of citizenship are incidental, indirect or attenuated, ( those costs are not within the State s control, and ( Arizona cannot verify the citizenship status of voter registrants in any other way. [State Br. at, -] But for those who do not possess the satisfactory evidence of citizenship required by Proposition 00 ( Registration ID, and who do not need such documents for any reason except to vote, the costs to obtain Registration ID are direct and substantial. A.R.S. -(F. Moreover, the State controls what constitutes satisfactory evidence of citizenship, and therefore controls whether voters must pay to comply with voter registration requirements. Furthermore, The other defendants, county recorders and elections directors from each of Arizona s counties submitted no additional substantive briefing. Candace Owens and Patty Hansen, the Coconino County defendants, affirmatively support plaintiffs Motions for Preliminary Injunction. The remaining County Defendants take no position on the constitutionality of the proof of citizenship requirement for voter registration. [County Def. Not. of Non-Participation in Substantive Briefing, at ] - -
0 0 the State has offered no evidence to show that it cannot verify United States citizenship in some way that does not require the purchase of Registration ID. For years, Arizona has required evidence of citizenship -- in the form of a sworn attestation, under penalty of perjury -- from applicants for voter registration. Plaintiffs do not contend that the State cannot continue to do so. Rather, the Constitution forbids the State from limiting satisfactory evidence of citizenship to a few categories of documentary evidence that cannot be obtained for free. By doing so, the State has placed a price tag on the franchise and unconstitutionally burdened the fundamental right to vote. See Harper, U.S. at ; see also M.L.B. v. S.L.J., U.S. 0, & n. ( ( The basic right to participate in political processes as voters and candidates cannot be limited to those who can pay for a license.. The State attempts to cast the issue before the Court as a non-justiciable political question -- a policy choice made by a majority of Arizona voters. [State Br. at ] But the Constitution flatly prohibits any initiative-based policy that places a price tag on voting, thereby barring tens of thousands of Arizonans, who are otherwise eligible to register, from registering to vote and exercising a fundamental constitutional right. Moreover, Proposition 00 s promise -- that it would not deny any eligible U.S. Citizen their right to vote -- contravenes the uncontested evidence submitted to this Court. Tens of thousands of registration forms have already been rejected. Those registration forms belong to people who, like Eva Steele, Kenneth Totten, Nicholas Fisher, Tammy Pattison and Tara Hernandez are eligible to vote, but lack Registration Contrary to the State s argument, federal law does not justify the Registration ID requirement. [See State Br. at ] Indeed, the Help America Vote Act has no documentary proof of citizenship requirement, and the National Voter Registration Act requires precisely the attestation that Arizona considered sufficient evidence of citizenship before Proposition 00. See U.S.C. gg-(b(, (b((a(i (requiring voter registration forms to contain a checkbox for a registrant to mark to indicate whether he is a citizen. Ex., at SEC0000. See Ex., at (0, registration forms rejected in counties as of July 00. - -
0 0 ID, and who have therefore been denied the right to register and vote. As explained more fully below, Proposition 00 imposes an unconstitutional poll tax, and its Registration ID requirement should be enjoined. Argument I. THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION OF POLL TAXES BARS FAR MORE THAN WHAT THE STATE CHARACTERIZES AS A GENUINE POLL TAX. The State argues that the Registration ID requirement passes constitutional muster because it differs in form (but not in function from the genuine poll tax at issue in the seminal Twenty-fourth Amendment cases, Harman v. Forssenius, 0 U.S. ( and Harper. [State Br. at ] Yet, the Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibits conditioning the franchise on payment of a poll tax or any other tax. U.S. Const. Amend. XXIV (emphasis added. Moreover, recent decisions striking down voter identification requirements in Georgia and Missouri make it clear that neither the name given to a law that bars voters who do not purchase required identification, nor the announced legislative purpose of such a law, renders it constitutionally permissible. See Common Cause/Georgia v. Billups, 0 F. Supp. d, (N.D. Ga. 00; Weinschenk v. State, No. 0AC-CC00, Slip op. at - (Mo. Cir. Ct., Cole County, Sept., 00 (recognizing state s legitimate interest in establishing entitlement to vote, but holding voter ID law unconstitutional because the burden of obtaining ID impermissibly infringe[s] on core voting rights. Thus, as the court recognized in Billups, a state may not circumvent the Twenty-fourth Amendment by requiring citizens to make a purchase as a condition of voting, even if couched in terms of merely verifying voters identities: [for voters who] have no other need for a Photo ID card, requiring those voters to purchase a Photo ID card effectively places a cost on the right to vote. In that respect, See, e.g., Ex., -; Ex., -; Ex., -; Ex., -; Ex., -. See Ex.. - -
0 0 the Photo ID requirement runs afoul of the Twenty-fourth Amendment for federal elections and violates the Equal Protection Clause for State and municipal elections. 0 F. Supp. d at & n. ( Requiring purchased photo identification is a reprise of the notorious poll tax scheme used in the past to prevent voting.. A poll tax is unconstitutional regardless of its purpose. It need not arise from a state policy to discriminate against minority voters. [Cf. State Br. at ] Neither the language of the Twenty-fourth Amendment nor the Supreme Court s interpretations of that Amendment in Harman and Harper require evidence of intent to discriminate. Indeed, the language of the Twenty-fourth Amendment could not be plainer -- the right of all citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged... by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. U.S. Const. Amend. XXIV. As the Court noted in Harman, Congressional hearings and debates indicate a general repugnance to the disenfranchisement of the poor occasioned by failure to pay the tax. 0 U.S. at (emphasis added. While the Virginia poll tax at issue in Harman and Harper originally was born of a desire to disenfranchise the Negro, the Court made clear in Harper that the Virginia law s unconstitutionality did not depend on whether in its modern setting it continued to serve the same end. U.S. at n.. Rather, Virginia s law violated the Fourteenth Amendment because it made the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee a qualification to vote. Id. As the Court held, [t]o introduce wealth or payment of a fee as a measure of a voter s qualifications is to introduce a capricious or irrelevant factor. Id. at. Proposition 00 s Registration ID requirement does precisely that. As such, it is unconstitutional and its enforcement must be enjoined. II. FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT NEED REGISTRATION ID FOR ANY PURPOSE OTHER THAN VOTING, THE COST OF OBTAINING SUCH ID IS NOT INCIDENTAL. The State also argues that the fees required to obtain Registration ID are incidental costs, which are similar to the indirect costs of voting such as voting on a Tuesday, or traveling to a polling place. [State Br. at, ] The State s suggestion that a - -
0 0 fee of $0 or more is incidental for its citizens living in poverty or on fixed incomes reveals, at best, a lack of understanding of the economic reality of many of its citizens. As a Missouri court recently noted about that state s voter identification law, costs that the State here characterizes as incidental place an insurmountable barrier in the path of the most vulnerable citizens: The photo ID burden placed on the voter may seem minor or inconsequential to the mainstream of our society for whom automobiles, driver licenses, and even passports are a natural part of everyday life. However, for the elderly, the poor, the under-educated, or otherwise disadvantaged, the burden can be great if not insurmountable, and it is those very people outside the mainstream of society who are least equipped to bear the costs or navigate the many bureaucracies necessary to obtain the required documentation. Weinschenk, No. 0AC-CC00, Slip op. at. Astonishingly, the State evidently believes that it is acceptable to force its most vulnerable citizens to choose between spending $ on food, shelter or medicine or using the money to purchase the right to vote. Notably, Proposition 00 contains no safety net allowing an alternative means of establishing citizenship for a citizen who lacks the funds to purchase Registration ID. In Arizona, a citizen who lacks Registration ID either must come up with the funds to purchase it, or else be disenfranchised. No other state has such a registration requirement, and to those Arizonans who are forced to this choice, the cost of obtaining Registration ID is not incidental. In addition, the State erroneously relies on the Indiana District Court s ruling in Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita 00 WL 000 (S.D. Ind. Apr., 00, to support its claim that the costs imposed on voters are incidental, and therefore not a poll tax. [State Br. at ] In fact, the court in Rokita never determined whether the cost of purchasing documents created a poll tax. Rather, it left the issue unresolved because the plaintiffs provided no evidence that any person would be required to pay money to obtain identification. See Rokita, 00 WL 000 at *. - -
0 0 In this case, defendants do not dispute that Registration ID is not available for free, and plaintiffs have identified several individuals who cannot register to vote in Arizona because they lack Registration ID and cannot afford to purchase it. As such, requirement of Registration ID unconstitutionally bars those potential voters from exercising their rights to vote. At bottom, a citizen in Arizona has the right to vote, whether or not he has $0, $ or $000 in his pocket. Indeed, a citizen has the right to cast a ballot whether the citizen, otherwise qualified to vote, has $.0 in his pocket or nothing at all. Harper, U.S. at. As the Court emphasized in Harper, wealth or fee paying has, in our view, no relation to voting qualifications; the right to vote is too precious, too fundamental to be so burdened or conditioned. Id. at 0. III. THE BALANCE OF HARDSHIPS TIPS SHARPLY IN PLAINTIFFS FAVOR AND THE PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP REQUIRMENT SHOULD BE ENJOINED. The State does not contend that enjoining the Registration ID requirement will cause any harm to the registration process for the upcoming general election. Indeed, the only evidence in the record on this point shows that pre-proposition 00 procedures for voter registration were adequate to ensure that qualified persons were registering to vote and reverting to those procedures would cause no hardship or confusion for election officials. Thus, for purposes of a preliminary injunction, the issue is neither close nor difficult -- the Court should enjoin Proposition 00 s Registration ID requirement until the Court can fully consider the merits in connection with later proceedings. Moreover, the widespread disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of eligible Arizonans who have been denied their right to register to vote without paying for Registration ID far outweighs any harm to Arizona elections caused by non-citizen See Ex.,,; Ex.,, ; Ex., ; Ex., -; Ex., -. Osborne Dep. 0:-0:; Ex., (emphasis added. - -
0 0 voters (i.e., non-citizens casting ballots in Arizona elections in the last ten years. Indeed, non-citizen voters are but a minute percentage of the tens of millions of voters who cast ballots in the dozens of federal, statewide and local elections that have occurred in the past decade. Accordingly, the balance of hardships tips sharply in plaintiffs favor, and enforcement of A.R.S. -(F should be enjoined forthwith. Conclusion For the foregoing reasons, Proposition 00 s Registration ID requirement imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and its enforcement should be enjoined immediately. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED this th day of September, 00. STEPTOE & JOHNSON LLP By s/ Karen J. Hartman-Tellez David J. Bodney Karen J. Hartman-Tellez Chris Moeser Collier Center 0 East Washington St., Ste. 00 Phoenix, Arizona 00- OSBORN MALEDON, P.A. David B. Rosenbaum Thomas L. Hudson Sara S. Greene North Central Ave., st Floor Phoenix, Arizona 0- Attorneys for The Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., et al. Of course, Proposition 00 was designed to discourage illegal immigration. County election officials testified only concerning non-citizens who are lawfully present in the United States, who had registered to vote. [Osborne Dep. at :-; Rodriguez Dep. at :-:0] Moreover, county elections officials testified that they had no knowledge that the non-citizens who registered to vote did so understanding that they were not entitled to vote. [Osborne Dep. at :-; Rodriguez Dep. at 0:-0] - -
0 0 LAWYERS' COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER LAW Jon Greenbaum Benjamin Blustein 0 New York Avenue, Suite 00 Washington, D.C. 000 Telephone: 0-- Fax: (0 - E-mail: jgreenbaum@lawyerscommittee.org Admitted Pro Hac Vice ACLU Southern Regional Office Neil Bradley 00 Marquis One Tower Peachtree Center Avenue Atlanta, Georgia 00 Telephone: 0-- Fax: 0--0 E-mail: nbradley@aclu.org Admitted Pro Hac Vice PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY FOUNDATION Elliot M. Mincberg Admitted Pro Hac Vice David Becker Pro Hac Vice Application Pending 000 M Street, NW, Suite 00 Washington, DC 00 Telephone: 0-- Fax: 0-- E-mail: emincberg@pfaw.org THE LEAGUE OF UNITED LATIN AMERICAN CITIZENS Luis Roberto Vera, Jr. (TX SBN 00 Soledad, Suite San Antonio, Texas 0-0 Telephone: 0--00 Fax: 0--00 E-mail: lrvlaw@sbcglobal.net Pro Hac Vice Application to be Filed AARP FOUNDATION LITIGATION Daniel B. Kohrman (DC BN 0 0 E Street, N.W., Suite A-0 Washington, DC 00 Telephone: 0--0 Fax: 0-- E-mail: dkohrman@aarp.org Admitted Pro Hac Vice THE INTER TRIBAL COUNCIL OF ARIZONA, INC. Joe P. Sparks (00 Susan B. Montgomery (00 Sparks, Tehan & Ryley PC 0 First Street Scottsdale Arizona Telephone: 0-- Fax: 0-- Attorneys for the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., et al. - -
0 0 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on the th day of September, 00, I caused the attached document to be electronically transmitted to the Clerk s Office using the CM/ECF System for filing and transmittal of a Notice of Electronic Filing to the following CM/ECF Registrants: Daniel R. Ortega, Jr. (danny@rmgmoinjurylaw.com Roush McCracken Guerrero Miller & Ortega 0 North rd Avenue Phoenix, Arizona 00 Nina Perales (nperales@maldef.org Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund 0 Broadway, Ste. 00 San Antonio, Texas 0 Attorneys for Gonzalez Plaintiffs Judith M. Dworkin (judith.dworkin@sackstierney.com Marvin S. Cohen (marvin.cohen@sackstierney.com Patricia Ferguson-Bohnee (patty.ferguson@sackstierney.com Sacks Tierney P.A. 0 North Drinkwater Boulevard th Floor Scottsdale, Arizona Dana L. Bobroff (dbobroff@yahoo.com Brenna L. Clani (brennalclani@navajo.org The Navajo Nation Department of Justice P.O. Drawer 00 Window Rock, Arizona Attorneys for Navajo Nation Plaintiffs - 0 -
0 0 Mary R. O Grady (mary.ogrady@azag.gov Peter Alex Silverman (peter.silverman@azag.gov Office of the Attorney General W. Washington Street Phoenix, Arizona 00- Bruce L. Skolnik (bruce.skolnik@azag.gov Office of the Attorney General N. Church Suite 0 Tucson, Arizona 0- Attorney for Defendants State of Arizona, and Jan Brewer in her official capacity as the Secretary of State of the state of Arizona M. Colleen Connor (connorc@mcao.maricopa.gov Maricopa County Attorney s Office Division of County Counsel N. Central Avenue, Ste. 00 Phoenix, Arizona 00 Dennis I. Wilenchik (diw@wb-law.com Kathleen Rapp (kathleenr@wb-law.com Wilenchik and Bartness, P.C. The Wilenchik & Bartness Building 0 North Third Street Phoenix, Arizona 00 Attorneys for County Defendants Jean Wilcox (jwilcox@coconino.az.gov Coconino County Attorney s Office 0 East Cherry Avenue Flagstaff, Arizona 00 Attorneys for Coconino County Defendants - -
0 0 I further certify that I caused a copy of the attached document to be mailed on the th day of September, 00 to: Honorable Roslyn O. Silver Sandra Day O Connor U.S. Courthouse, Ste. 0 West Washington, SPC Phoenix, Arizona 00- /s/ Michele L. Galvez Michele L. Galvez, Legal Secretary - -